Top 5 Marketing Strategies for Racquetball Companies

If you sell racquetball equipment, you know you face a unique set of challenges to your business than others. Getting ahead in this industry means separating yourself from the competition. It takes strategy, it takes drive, and it takes a creative, out-of-the-box approach to marketing.

As you build this strategy, it’s important to come up with a list of strategies for your racquetball company that can take you through the business stages of growth, to be sure, but also propel you well past that. Too many companies view their marketing strategy as static; we challenge you to look at it as a living thing – something that has to be nurtured, re-assessed and changed as needed over the life of your business.

Here are our five recommended strategies for marketing your racquetball company. These are real examples used by a real online, San Diego-based racquetball equipment provider. They sell everything from racquetball racquets and balls to bags and gloves:

1. Become a blogger. This may be way out of your comfort zone, so either learn fast or hire a writer to help you. This is absolutely essential to getting out there in front of your customers. They don’t want to be pushed product; too much in-your-face will turn them off. Blogging takes a different road. Yes, it showcases your products in a round-about, subtle way, but it’s more about showing off your expertise than going with the hard sell. You will never rank high on Google’s freshness algorithm (a content ranking factor for frequent updates, recurring events and hot topics) if you aren’t blogging. If this weapon isn’t already in your arsenal, invest in it. Here’s a good example: Both Chiropractor A and Chiropractor B own a five-page website of comparable length and quality. The difference is, Chiropractor A doesn’t go above and beyond to obtain social shares or customer testimonials like Chiropractor B does. On top of that, Chiropractor B writes a timely blog every week talking about popular industry topics. Who will rank higher in the freshness algorithm? Yup, Chiropractor B, thanks to the timeliness and relevancy factor.2. Save money by using Bing over Adwords. Google seems to corner the market in this area but they don’t own it all. Try something a little less well known yet a whole lot lower priced – by half usually. At last check, racquetball companies are paying about $2 per click with Adwords, but Bing charges about half that. Google Adwords allows you to purchase PPC ads to be displayed on search results pages; it gets high per-click rates but it comes at a cost to you. It wasn’t always that way. Used to be that Google Adwords charged well under $1 per click, but it rises all the time. Why shouldn’t it? Google owns 33 percent of all online ad revenue, which is a cool 38.6 billion out of 117.6 billion.3. Explore re-marketing. Whenever a customer lands on your website, a cookie is placed in their browser, which allows targeted ads to follow them all over the Internet. They may be searching for a racket in the morning, then they go about their merry way online, looking up other websites, then all of a sudden later that day, they see an ad for racquetball racket sales pop up. You could be THAT company. Getting right in people’s faces – people you KNOW need a racket – is a highly effective form of marketing. It’s not cheap, though. If you have a tight budget, go a slightly different route with remarketing on YouTube. Simply place a 20-second ad to appear before a video for just 20 cents or so – a fraction of the cost of traditional remarketing as mentioned above – and you can enjoy exposure of untold proportions. It also helps that YouTube is a part of the Google Ad Display network, which has a monthly viewership equivalent to 10 Superbowl audiences. Not too shabby.4. Engage in link building. As part of your content marketing for rankings, link building is a critical component of that effort. First, you need to entice customers to come to your website in the first place. Then, you have to keep them there so they buy something. The key to this second one is to have quality, compelling content. However, if you’re having trouble coming up with content ideas, try sites like BuzzSumo for inspiration. You may have been initially schooled in the practice of SEO and targeted keyword usage being the secret to success. While those are both still important, quality content with an authoritative edge is where it’s at. Introduce link-worthy and shareable content, such as an infographic, video or blog post, that’s not only informative but compelling so potential customers stay with you to see how you can help them. In addition to all that, implement an SEO-friendly title so you can rank high with the search engines, as well as strong meta and image tags.5. Get on a local directory. Local search is important, and you want to appeal to your local, San Diego-based customers. Customers are looking for your racquetball company so make sure you’re visible and accessible. A great way to do this is to join search directories for other like-minded retailers so your potential customers can find you. They’ll be able to filter their search by specialty and location, so ranking for keywords is especially important.

Are you looking to position yourself as the top racquetball company in your area? Take our advice and try the above. Or let us do it. Call now to learn how.